Our day started with a conversation with Ted, a retired farmer from Ohio, and his nice dog Luvie. A very friendly person who offered us a self-made key hanger (from survival rope) and some sweet to survive the trip. Next stop were the dazzling white sand dunes of the White Sands National Monument. It is again impossible to describe this unique place besides the words ‘fifty shades of white’! In this unique place we had the real proof that the world is a small place to live in. We met our first Belgian, Jan, a guy from Oudenaarde who lives now in Albuquerque, NM. His journey started with a motorbike travel to Tanzania, where he lived a couple of years and he recently moved from Myanmar to the US with his wife and kids. Interesting person! He started working at https://www.eaglerider.com , a company which organizes motorbike travels throughout the US.
We left the white dunes and driving via the San Augustinus pass, we arrived in El Passo where we did some urgent supplies shopping and charged all our electronic equipment.
On Friday we followed the border with Mexico. During a food-stop the owner told us why there is so many border control along the route and in the mountains. This due to the actively and well organized drug traffic from Mexico to the US. Main business in New Mexico is ranching, the owner also raised one bull per year and you need to count 40 acres (161874m²) per animal. Ground ownership means big business. We also crossed the border with Arizona, our 11th state, and entered again a new timezone. It was hard to find a campsite and a nice ranger directed us to the Corolando national forest. She said we needed to follow a dirt road for a couple of miles. Reality was, one way and we had to return via the same way, 55km in total of which 42km dirt road. The scenery was magnificent. We spent a very cold night in the forest.
In the morning we drove via Douglas and Bisbee towards Tombstone. Although it felt like a theme park, it was worth visiting it. We ended the day in Patagonia on a nice RV-site which has finally space for a tent.
